Demon's Don't
by Cheeseburger of Doom
Summary: [Chains of Blood universe] Oshitari didn't know what he was, until tragedy struck. He didn't care what he was, after he stopped feeling. He didn't learn to feel again, until after he met another demon like him.


A/N: Yay! Yet another Chains of Blood spinoff! I hope you're not sick of them. I like the supernatural. My best friend is the ghost that haunts my house. His name is George. Say hi, George! [Hi, George.] This is the second last idea I had, I'm not sure if I shall bother with the last one (I keep saying that...you know I'll bother eventually). 

I'm not too sure of the timeline here, I don't know anything about history, so I just made stuff up. If the number of years seem a little off, please forgive me. Oh, and I don't know anything about Oshitari's family (damn!) but this is AU so I don't need to, mwaahahahahah *choke* I'm going to go play poker with George now.

Ah, and again with the self-promotion! Other fics in this series (kami-sama, I'm making a series!) include

Chains of Blood [SengokuxMomo]

Bitten and Bound [AtobexTezuka]

Reunions [OishixEiji]

For Just a Moment [InuixKaido]

Unbreakable Bond [FujixJiroh]

Demons Don't

When Oshitari was very young, his best friend was a human boy. They both lived in an orphanage. knew there was something different between the two of them, but he couldn't understand exactly what.

When he reached the age of fifteen, and his demon instincts kicked in, he learned the difference. His best friend was food.

Everything changed in an instant. One second, he was laughing with the boy as always, and the next, he felt hunger like no other, and he'd attacked his best friend without any knowledge of what he was doing. It was all over in a few minutes. The boy was dead, and Oshitari's hunger was satisfied.

Once Oshitari realized what he had done, he went into shock. He ran from the orphanage that night, and never looked back. He had to get as far away as he could, as soon as possible, before anyone caught him.

He managed to make his way to a different city, by hiding in someone's cart. He took to living on the streets, and stealing what he needed to survive. He soon found that normal food would not satisfy him, but he avoided killing humans at all costs.

He did not want to be discovered.

He spent two years in that city. When he was seventeen, he was discovered by a fellow demon.

"What are you doing on the streets?" the demon hissed. Oshitari had no idea of what the man was, nor did he have any idea of what he himself really was. All he knew was that there was something the same about both of them.

"I have nowhere else to go," Oshitari replied.

"Come with me, child." The man gripped his arm roughly, and pulled him to places unknown. Oshitari knew he should be afraid, but he had no fear left in him. He didn't care about anything anymore.

He was taken to an underground cavern.

"Atobe-sama. I found one."

"Oh? A lost demon? I've been looking for this one." 

Oshitari looked up at a throne. A real throne, that looked as though it were made of spider webs.

"What is your name, boy?" the man atop the throne asked.

"I don't have one," Oshitari replied. He had discarded his name long ago. He was no longer the boy who had grown up in an orphanage. He gained a name that night, a name that he changed countless times. That night was also the night that he discovered what he really was.

A demon.

He was born to eat human flesh. His best friend had been sacrificed because of what he was. Atobe-sama, the leader of the underworld on Earth, entrusted him to another demon, and Oshitari was taught about all the things that demons did.

He ate many humans, after that, and after a while the shock wore off. He never forgot the human boy he had been best friends with, but after a few years, he stopped feeling the guilt. He stopped feeling anything.

He was a demon, and he knew he should act like one.

He had a good teacher. A demon called Oishi, who was as ruthless as they came. He taught Oshitari how to hunt, and how to eat without getting caught by the humans.

Oshitari became one of the more powerful demons. He was widely respected, and even feared by some members of the underworld. Rumors flew about him. It was said that he even ate other members of the underworld, when the mood took him. There was no law against it, so the undead tried to stay far away from him.

Oshitari led a very lonely life, but he didn't really care. He was a demon, and he knew how to act like one.

~~~~~

When Oshitari reached his hundredth year, he went with the huge movement of undead to Japan. Among that movement were Atobe-sama and his mentor, Oishi. Atobe-sama wanted to organize the undead on the other side of the world.

Oshitari wanted to taste the people on the other side of the world.

"You'll have to change your appearance when we get there," Oishi told him. "You'll need to look Japanese."

"Yes, and we'll all need to learn how to speak it, as well," Oshitari said. "Or we could be in for some trouble."

"That will be taken care of."

"Why do you still talk to me?" Oshitari asked, suddenly. Oishi blinked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone else avoids me."

"I've always watched out for you, since you were put in my care."

"I know you have, but I want you to stop bothering," Oshitari said. He wanted to push away the only person left in his life. If he was going to be alone, he wanted to be left completely alone. 

Oishi gave him a long look, but finally shrugged his shoulders. "Have it your way," he said, and he walked out of Oshitari's life. They saw each other afterwards on a regular basis, but as years passed, their bond became a hazy memory.

~~~~~

It was in Japan that Oshitari gained the name that he would keep. Oshitari remained his family name for a very long time, though his other name often changed. 

He liked Japan. He liked the taste of people in Japan, as well.

When Oshitari reached his two hundredth year, a very strange even occurred. Atobe-sama called for him personally.

Oshitari knelt before him, and wondered what Atobe-sama would have to say. He did not often speak with the ruler. They had nothing to say to each other. Oshitari was a demon, and Atobe was a vampire. The two did not mix well. Oshitari had no desire to have any sort of power within the underworld. Having the undead fear him was power enough. Oshitari never broke the rules of the underworld, and had never needed to be punished, either.

"Oshitari. There has been an up rise in crime in the human world, and they are starting to get suspicious. It is not like you to be careless."

Oshitari was surprised. "Atobe-sama, I have not been careless," he said.

"The corpses match the description of your handy work."

"I have not eaten in months, Atobe-sama. I have been careful, as I always am."

Atobe-sama raised an eyebrow. "If that is true, then there is a demon on the loose. No one else is as...brutal as you are."

Oshitari smirked. "That sounded like a compliment."

"Don't be so egotistical. I was merely stating a fact."

Oshitari did not make the comment that Atobe-sama was much more egotistical than he would ever be. It was not worth it to make his ruler angry.

"He must be one of the lost demons," Atobe-sama said thoughtfully.

"Lost demons?"

"Like you. Every so often, a human pair has a demon child. When they hit fifteen, the demon instincts come to life."

"Yes, I know all about that," Oshitari murmured. He had never forgotten that moment. He no longer had nightmares about it, but he remembered it.

"I want you to find the demon who has been doing this. You two will get along well," Atobe-sama said.

"I will find him."

~~~~~

Oshitari was true to his word. A few nights later, he stood before a small demon, who had a crazy look in his eyes, and blood all over him.

"What are you doing on the streets?" Oshitari asked.

"I have nowhere else to go," the little demon replied.

Oshitari remembered this conversation, from long ago. He reached out a hand. "Come with me, little demon. I will give you a home."

A small hand took his.

~~~~~

Oshitari named his new charge Mukahi. Mukahi kept that name for a very long time afterwards. 

Oshitari listened to Mukahi's story that night, as Mukahi shed tears of blood. Demons did not cry human tears, after all.

Mukahi had killed his parents. He hadn't meant to; he'd been sitting with them, laughing with them, and suddenly, he had been hungry...

Oshitari knew that feeling all too well.

He would train Mukahi to forget about his guilt, and live like a true demon. Mukahi would become as ruthless as he was.

Mukahi would learn how to act like a demon.

For some reason, that thought made him feel something he hadn't felt in a long time, not since he had ceased being human.

He ignored that feeling. He pushed it away, and forgot about it.

He was a demon, after all.

~~~~~

Oshitari and Mukahi were an unstoppable pair. After fifty years, Mukahi was as widely respected and feared as Oshitari. The two of them together was enough to clear a pathway in any crowd.

"Ne, Yuushi," Mukahi asked one night. Yuushi was the name he'd used a few years ago, and Mukahi had taken to calling him that. He liked the sound of it, he said.

"Yes?"

"What do humans taste like in America?"

"Almost the same as the humans here, but I find the Japanese a little sweeter," Oshitari replied, with a grin.

"Heh, that would sound prejudiced to one of them."

"I know it would, but it's the truth."

Mukahi moved forward until their noses were almost touching, and he peered into Oshitari's eyes. 

"Why do you always wear glasses when you're posing as a human?"

"Because they make me look mysterious," Oshitari replied.

Mukahi laughed.

"Yuushi...You never told me about your life...before."

"Why are you asking so many questions tonight?"

"I'm feeling particularly curious. It's been years, and you've never told me what your life was like before you met me."

"I don't really enjoy talking about it," Oshitari said. "But since you asked, I'll tell you. I grew up as a human, much as you did, only in an orphanage. I don't remember my parents. When I turned demon, I ate my dearest friend."

"Does it still hurt?" Mukahi asked.

"Demons don't hurt, remember," Oshitari said. "I've taught you well, haven't I?"

"You've taught me well, but I think it must still hurt. I still feel bad for eating my parents. They cared for me."

"That will fade, in time."

"Are you sure?" Mukahi asked.

"Yes."

"I'm not."

There was silence.

"Ne, Yuushi."

"Yes?"

"Let's be lovers."

That took Oshitari by surprise. Not only was it a drastic change in conversation, it was unexpected.

"What?"

"Why not?" Mukahi asked. "We're both demons, so no one will care."

"Gakuto..." The name that Mukahi asked to be called, only by Oshitari.

"We're both in need of a little fun, don't you think?" Mukahi asked, nibbling at Oshitari's neck.

When he put it that way, Oshitari could hardly refuse.

~~~~~

When Mukahi reached his hundredth year, a human named Momoshiro shook things up in the underworld. He stumbled into one of the meetings, and the half-vampire Sengoku took the human as his pet.

That was the kind of thing that both Oshitari and Mukahi despised. After nearly one hundred years of being together, and fifty years of being lovers, they had learned to share many of the same views.

Mukahi had stopped feeling guilty about his parents, and he'd accepted the demon's way of life. He'd pushed his emotions away, and he'd stopped feeling anything.

Yet he wondered why, if he didn't feel anything, that he had stayed with Oshitari for so long. Most demons switched lovers almost as often as they changed clothes, but they two of them were bound together for some reason.

He suspected that it was because they shared similar childhoods that they wanted to stay together, but that didn't make sense, since they both did not care about those things. They were demons, after all.

When Momoshiro entered the scene, though, things changed.

"Gakuto."

"Yes?"

"Did it stop hurting, finally?" Oshitari asked.

"Yes, it stopped hurting. I don't feel anything anymore."

"That's what I thought, too," Oshitari murmured. "Sengoku has proved that the undead can have human hearts, though."

"He's half-human! Of course he has a human heart," Mukahi said, with a sneer. "Half-breed scum."

"Your parents were human."

"I'm not!"

"You can't change facts."

"Why are you pestering me, Yuushi?" Mukahi asked irritably.

"Because I've started to hurt again," Oshitari replied, "and I wondered if you had, as well."

Mukahi's eyes widened. "You started to feel again?"

"A little. I started to wonder why we are still together," he said. "And then I started to wonder if I really felt something for you, besides the obvious."

"Heh, we really have fun together, don't we?" Mukahi grinned. 

"There is no end to the good times," Oshitari agreed. "But that's what I mean."

"Don't be stupid, Yuushi. We're demons. Demons just don't..."

"I know," Oshitari said. He reached for his lover, and kissed him soundly. All words were forgotten.

~~~~~

Oshitari stared at Oishi, his former mentor. They rarely spoke, these days. Oshitari had bumped into him by accident, and they'd both fallen to the floor. Now he could see into Oishi's eyes, and what was in them was almost frightening.

Tears. Human tears.

"Oishi?"

"What is it?" Oishi asked. 

"You've changed," Oshitari said.

"Yes, I have. I've discovered..." Oishi shook his head. "I can't talk about it, not even to you. I wanted to say that I'm sorry for walking out of your life like that, without a second thought."

"I told you to."

"I know, but if I hadn't, maybe..." Oishi sighed. "Never mind that. Just know that I'm sorry."

"Demons don't apologize."

"I taught you that," Oishi said. "I take it back." He turned away.

"Oishi."

"What?"

"Thank you."

"Demons don't show gratitude," Oishi said.

"I know."

Oishi walked out of Oshitari's life for a second time. This time, it was for good. Oshitari never saw him again.

~~~~~

"My mentor fell in love with a human."

Mukahi looked up at Oshitari in surprise. "What is it with this whole human heart thing? Is it some sort of disease? I don't want to catch it!" He wrinkled up his nose.

"I think I already have," Oshitari said.

"Yuushi! What are you talking about?" Mukahi demanded. "If you've fallen in love with a human, I swear I'll--"

"I think what I've done is much worse," Oshitari said. "I've fallen in love with a fellow demon."

"Well, why would you --" Mukahi blinked. "What?"

"You heard me, Gakuto."

"Demons don't --"

"Neither do vampires or witches or zombies, or anyone, but they do!" Oshitari said.

"You know, if I didn't understand how you feel, I would leave you," Mukahi said. "It's dangerous to share your feelings with other demons, you know."

"I know. Wait, what do you mean, you understand how I feel?" Oshitari asked.

"Well, the other day, when you asked me about my parents...I realized that I've started to hurt again, too," Mukahi said. "I don't really want to eat humans anymore. They don't taste as good as they used to."

Oshitari smiled. "You know, I love you, Gakuto."

"I love you too, Yuushi, but don't ever tell anyone I said that."

Oshitari laughed. "We've been together a long time, haven't we?"

"Not long enough yet!" Mukahi said. 

"I don't want to eat anymore humans, either," Oshitari said.

"Then we'll help each other hide it," Mukahi said. "We'll keep up our reputation, but in secret, we'll be little pansy demons."

"You've always had a way with words," Oshitari said.

Mukahi snickered. "I have a way with other things, too."

"Yes, I agree with that."

~~~~~

Oshitari and Mukahi were among the most respected and feared demons, but they had a well-kept secret. They weren't really demons at all, anymore. It had been a long time since either of them had feasted on human flesh, and they had more feelings than even some humans knew about. Mukahi tended to throw temper tantrums. Oshitari thought it was cute.

The whole underworld seemed to think that they stayed together because they were more powerful that way, but the reason was really much simpler than that.

Their was a strong bond between them, created by their similar childhoods; a bond that had developed into love.

Of course, the underworld would never have accepted that, because demons don't love.

Only, they did.


End file.
